


Skulls and Magicians

by JQ (musicmillennia)



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: ALL THE FLUFF, Feel-good, Fluff, Fluff not Fear, Labor of Love, M/M, Silly Boys, The Author is a Nerd who Loves Card Games, Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game, pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2017-06-23
Packaged: 2018-11-17 23:15:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11278788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicmillennia/pseuds/JQ
Summary: When they were little, the Mardon brothers played a card game from a show they bonded over. Sometimes, when he wants to remember the good times, he takes out a few of the cards he kept.Then he got to know Barry Allen and. Now he's got more than a few.(Basically, Barry and Mardon play a children's card game and are absolutely melodramatic dorks about the whole thing.)





	Skulls and Magicians

**Author's Note:**

  * For [languageismymistress](https://archiveofourown.org/users/languageismymistress/gifts).



> For my bae who has Big Sad!! I'm a nerd who loves the Yu-Gi-Oh card games and I've been reliving some childhood recently. So I got two of my decks out and set up a little scenario for this fic! Because they make me happy, and I hope to transfer some of that happiness to my dearest Scarlet, lightning of my life, bae of my dreams <3

Thunder tears the clouds apart.

Mardon pumps his fist. " _Fuck_ yeah!"

Barry's eyes narrow over his cards. "What did you just draw?"

Mardon smacks the card on the coffee table. "Advanced Ritual Art,  _Flash_! I pick a Ritual Monster in my hand and tribute monsters in my deck to match its level. Then I can summon it!"

"Oh  _no_!"

"Oh  _yes_!" Mardon puts his hand face-down and goes through his deck. Maiden of Macabre and Hannibal Necromancer are tossed into his Graveyard. Then, a blue card bangs onto the field, depicting a blue-skinned guy in a black and red outfit with a jesterish hat. "Magician of Black Chaos!  _Ha_!"

Barry gapes at the card. "You. Did you seriously find a loophole ritual card?!"

Mardon winks. "I'm a thief, baby. Oh, and by the way? I'm equipping Book of Secret Arts to this beautiful bastard. 300 extra Attack points.  _And_!" Mardon flips the only card left in his hand to show him. "Mage Power. 500 more Attack for every Spell and Trap Card I control,  _including_ this card! That puts my sweet Spellcaster ass at 4300 points!"

His finger jabs on Barry's Summoned Skull. Even with the equipped Black Pendant, its Attack is 3000.

Barry looks at the post-it note next to their game mats, where they'd written their Life Points in red pen.  _Barry: 1300, Mardon: 600._ If this attack lands, Barry loses the game.

The weather cackles outside, flicking their apartment window with giggly raindrops and smirking fog. Barry feels the lightning tease through his nerves.

"And like a true Rogue," Mardon says proudly, "I pulled this victory  _out of my ass_. Your Summoned Skull's lightning strike is  _nothing_ now!" The grown man braces himself on the table and gets in the other grown man's face. " _Ha_!"

Barry puts up a finger. "But you can't attack any monster but my Hand-Holding Genie!"

"Who cares? Ain't like you got a card that can save you now, Barry. You're  _toast_."

"And you've clearly been hanging around Heat Wave too much."

Mardon winks again. Then he throws his hand out to the side and yells, "I attack with _Chaos Scepter Blast_!"

Barry makes a huge exploding noise and slides Hand-Holding Genie to the Graveyard. Mardon's eyes are shining.

"I end my turn,  _hero_."

Barry blows out a long breath. There's nothing in his hand that can destroy that monster. None of his Thunder or Warrior monsters can help him now. But if he can draw the right card...

He takes another long breath. Exhales.

Sweat gathers on his brow.

He draws, and lightning strikes. Which Mardon probably did on purpose to add a little more drama, because really, you can never have too much.

(Oh great. Now _he's_ thinking like a Rogue.)

"I Set a card face-down," he says, expression tight. "And that's it."

Mardon smirks. "Really? Not gonna switch Skully to Defense?"

Barry lifts his chin. "I'm a superhero. If I'm going down, I'm going down fighting."

"Oo, a man after my own heart. I draw." He barely looks at the card before he's rising to his feet and pointing right at Barry's face. "I attack your Summoned Skull, and I  _win_!"

Barry grins.

Mardon falters.

"Are you sure about that?" Barry asks.

"...what did you draw, Allen?"

Barry flips over his face-down.

Mardon falls to his knees. "No way. No  _fucking_ way!"

Now Barry's on his feet. "Magic Cylinder, Weather Wizard! Not only am I safe from the attack,  _you_ get damage equal to your Monster's Attack Points! Which means..." he snatches the red pen and post-it. "You take 4300 points of damage to your 500 Life Points.  _I_ win!"

He scribbles out  _500_ and puts a big, big  _0_.

"How..." Mardon whispers, "How did you draw that card? Of all the damn cards, you had to draw  _that_ one?"

Barry beams. "I got mad skills."

"Never say that again."

"Aw, don't feel bad, Mardon! Now that I can pick the movie, we won't have to suffer through another  _Cowboys vs Aliens_ remake."

"You leave my shitty movies outta this!"

They're practically nose to nose.

That's about when they start laughing.

Outside, the storm fades into a beautiful city night. Inside the warm apartment, Barry takes Mardon's hands and squeezes them tight.

"Happy anniversary."

Mardon smiles. "To many more."

They kiss nice and sweet, childhood on the table between them, future at their fingertips. Wrapped in their little bubble, it feels like nothing can touch them, and after all that's happened, that's. Basically the best feeling in the world.

Barry nuzzles their foreheads. "Or."

Mardon blinks. "Or?"

Barry grins, running his hands up Mardon's chest. "Instead of a movie..."

Mardon starts grinning too. He knows exactly what he's thinking.

"Best two out of three?"

" _Fuck_ yeah."

 

**Author's Note:**

> MAY THIS FIC BE HOT COCOA AND MINI MARSHMALLOWS FOR THE SOUL <3
> 
> also, if any of y'all play Duel Links, hit me up @ Legwork! I even got a deck I call Heat Wave ;p


End file.
